freegans - Jezebel

posts about #freegans more →
The Revolution Will Not Involve Day-Old Sushi
Oprah Wears Louboutins To Interview Anti-Consumerist "Freegans"

Your version of Internet Explorer is not supported. Please upgrade to the most recent version in order to view comments.

Dsmvwl Admin Promote to frontpage Approve user Ban user ×

tscheese
03/30/09

In reply to The Revolution Will Not Involve Day-Old Sushi
I'm kind of scared of dumpster furniture if it has soft or hidden surfaces--like the interior of a cushion on a chair. I keep hearing all these horror stories about bedbugs.
Reply

tscheese was starred tscheese was unstarred

purpleshoes reminds everyone to take typing breaks and stretch, ow
03/30/09

In reply to The Revolution Will Not Involve Day-Old Sushi
You know, I said this in a comment, but I'll say it again: I did this for a while after I graduated (no more campus job, no new grownup job). I never got sick, I actually ate really well (waaaay too much rotisserie chicken, because the guy who worked in the deli would come out when he heard our car and start passing stuff out), and I probably ate more vegetables during my dumpster phase then I did before or after.

I got a job, I started shopping at the yuppie grocery, and I never looked back, because it's exhausting to come home at 3 a.m. with a car full of vegetables and have to cook them all right then because they're twelve hours from going bad. But you know what, I think some of the ill feeling in the comments is going back to the "why should they have free bread?" place, and every Panera's in this country throws away a hundred gallons of bread a day.

I am sick of stale Panera's for the rest of my life, incidentally.
Reply

poires et poireaux
03/30/09

@purpleshoes: Hear, hear. It may not be for everybody, but it's hurting no one. I say kudos for being resourceful.

I've gone to some pretty amazing dumpster feasts at friends' houses. I never did the diving myself, but as long as everything was washed and clean, I had no problem.

What about groups such as Food Not Bombs? I don't see anything wrong with providing free food to those who need it, even if the food is someone else's waste.
Reply

poires et poireaux was starred

Little Time Bomb
03/30/09

In reply to The Revolution Will Not Involve Day-Old Sushi
Food is really the only thing I am always willing to splurge on. I would rather pay for a fresh piece of fruit than get a free dinged up one. That being said I wont let that fruit I paid for go to waste.
Reply

Little Time Bomb was starred Little Time Bomb was unstarred

RobertaFisk
03/30/09

In reply to The Revolution Will Not Involve Day-Old Sushi
The first time I moved out, my dad found (really very cute) white armchair on his suburban street. I gladly accepted it, even though my mom made us put it in the garage, scrub it with soap (which I didn't mind and would have done anyway), and even after I had used it for a whole year with no problems, refused to allow me to bring it back into her house. I've been too influenced by reading a million newspaper stories about how bedbugs are back to do it again, but it was a good chair. And I'd totally take a table or wooden chair - anything that can be cleaned, really.
Reply

RobertaFisk was starred RobertaFisk was unstarred

TheExperience
03/30/09

In reply to The Revolution Will Not Involve Day-Old Sushi
I live a stone's thrown away from a major college town, and the time is nearly upon us where everyone cleans out their decrepit houses and throw everything they don't want onto the curb. The sidewalks are filled with townies who stick around for the summer, collecting sneakers, mildew covered pillows, old magazines and discolored couches to drag into their own places. And mind you, the majority of these kids live in complete, rotting, uncaring filth.

I have a bone chilling fear of bedbugs, and said town is a hotbed of them. I get uncomfortable just watching kids pull blankets and old clothing out of the garbage to take home. I always donate gently worn clothing, old books, and unworn shoes so someone else can use them, but I'll never be able to pull things out of the trash. Never.
Reply

TheExperience was starred TheExperience was unstarred

RobertaFisk
03/30/09

@TheExperience: What about something that is easily rubbed down with cleaner or alcohol?
Reply

RobertaFisk was starred RobertaFisk was unstarred

tomatoheart
03/30/09

@TheExperience: yeah, there's a bedbug epidemic sweeping across the US right now -- which definitely puts a damper on my desire to freecycle couches and bedding, etc.
Reply

tomatoheart was starred tomatoheart was unstarred

TheExperience
03/30/09

@RobertaFisk: In honesty, I'd probably give it a once over. But I've read so much about how bugs can hide in any porous materials, including wood, I'd be too afraid to bring it into the house. It's not that I'm above doing it, it's that I would be convinced for weeks that I had just infested my apartment.
Reply

TheExperience was starred TheExperience was unstarred

RobertaFisk
03/30/09

@TheExperience: Now you've made me paranoid about bedbugs hiding in wood! I didn't know that was possible!
Reply

RobertaFisk was starred RobertaFisk was unstarred

poires et poireaux
03/30/09

In reply to The Revolution Will Not Involve Day-Old Sushi
I've gotten lots of stuff from the streets and loved it! Montreal is one of the best places for street furniture because nearly everybody moves on July 1st and you can furnish your whole house, and it's pretty awesome stuff. I'm not afraid to admit that I've done it before and will do it again if necessary.

I've also eaten dumpster food back in the day thanks to anarchist friends. There was this one bagel shop where I went to college that wrapped their bagels perfectly at the end of the day and placed them cleanly in the dumpster. The shop was located right next to the local hipster bar so everybody would get free bagels after their indie rock concerts.

Where I draw the line, and this is ten kinds of disgusting, is dumpster wine. My friend's roommates found about 20 litres of orange juice and fermented it until it turned to wine and it was apparently the most disgusting beverage ever.
Reply

poires et poireaux was starred

JinxyMcDeath
03/30/09

@poires et poireaux: Was your friend's roommate in jail when he did this? Because that's really the only acceptable reason to do that...
Reply

JinxyMcDeath was starred JinxyMcDeath was unstarred

poires et poireaux
03/30/09

@JinxyMcDeath: Come to think of it, he did spend some time in the slammer, but it was totally unrelated to the OJ wine.
Reply

poires et poireaux was starred

Aesop's Foibles. YES.
03/30/09

In reply to The Revolution Will Not Involve Day-Old Sushi
This reminds me of David Sedaris' sister Tiffany, whom he wrote about in one of his books. He goes to visit her and in the cab, she's telling him all about her scavenging finds and one of them was a "perfectly good" frozen turkey. David was horrified, and she was all, "Who would intentionally fuck with a frozen turkey?" So then he asked her what did she do with it, and she says "What anyone would do with a frozen turkey. I cooked it and then I ate it."
Reply

TheFormerJuneBronson
03/30/09

In reply to The Revolution Will Not Involve Day-Old Sushi
When we lived in the city, this was the easiest way in the world to obtain or dispense with used durable goods. Anything usable was left in the alley behind the building, outside of the dumpster, and it was inevitably gone in minutes. We left a couch back there that we really had used up--it was thirdhand when we got it, and the support straps had broken irreparably--and it was snatched up by the time we got back upstairs. In fact, I think someone approached my mother while she was putting it out there; we were letting it go on move-out day. We also had a lot of dedicated can-recyclers; after we could afford it, I would leave my returnable bottles for those guys. I still obtain things this way from the dumpster area in our complex. Someone threw out a brand-new cooler that had developed mildew on the inside. A little bleach and it was good as new. I'd say I drew the line somewhere, but I haven't found it yet. My only real rule is that it has to be usable for us. I won't take anything just for the sake of rescuing it. And I don't really go looking. If I chance upon it, that's okay.

Really, though? I'd just like to see things become durable again. Planned obsolescence gives me hives.
Reply

RobertaFisk
03/30/09

@TheFormerJuneBronson: I second the things-lasting plea.
Reply

RobertaFisk was starred RobertaFisk was unstarred

Lizawithazee
03/30/09

In reply to The Revolution Will Not Involve Day-Old Sushi
And who can forget this tale (scroll down to number eight) when doing a little curbside garbage day shopping:

[www.cracked.com]
Reply

Lizawithazee was starred Lizawithazee was unstarred

Lizawithazee
03/30/09

@Lizawithazee: that would be number five, dumbass.
Reply

Lizawithazee was starred Lizawithazee was unstarred

megscissorhands
03/30/09

In reply to The Revolution Will Not Involve Day-Old Sushi
I've never eaten food from the dumpster (once I saw an unopened bag of chips on the subway and ALMOST went for it, but then, thankfully, sanity punched me in the face), but my brothers have found fully functional televisions and xbox/playstations therein. When we lived on military bases, dumpster diving was not all that uncommon--families would be moving out and just throw away a lot of stuff that wasn't necessarily garbage, but that would put them over weight limit or they just didn't feel like moving. The rest of the neighborhood had the pick of it.

The saddest instances of dumpster diving that I know of are when people get physically evicted by the sheriff and their greedy neighbors pounce on all their stuff within minutes, even if the person is STANDING RIGHT THERE BY IT. My lawyer boss works primarily eviction suits, and he and his associates swear this always happens, though I haven't seen it with my own two eyes.
Reply

megscissorhands was starred megscissorhands was unstarred

morninggloria
03/30/09

In reply to The Revolution Will Not Involve Day-Old Sushi
Once, Boyfriend and I were walking home from like getting ice cream or something, and there, leaned up against the wall behind a dumpster behind his building, was a glorious 4 X 6 foot canvas circa 1985 Glamor Shots print of a woman laying in a pool filled with red petals and wearing a man's watch and a weird crochet dress. I convinced him to rescue it and it has been hanging in his apartment since. This thing is glorious, you guys.
Reply

morninggloria was starred morninggloria was unstarred

Samanthrax
03/30/09

@morninggloria: I got two velvet unicorn paintings this way. One unicorn is good, the other one is a demon unicorn.
Reply

Samanthrax was starred Samanthrax was unstarred

morninggloria
03/30/09

@Samanthrax: Not going to lie, the demon unicorn picture would probably give me nightmares. I believe we established yesterday that I has the wimpy.
Reply

morninggloria was starred morninggloria was unstarred

Samanthrax
03/30/09

@morninggloria: I painted a picture of a zombie and it is hanging next to my bed. Even my desensitized ass gets terrified pretty much everytime I wake up in the middle of the night... I should move that thing. I should find a picture!
Reply

Samanthrax was starred Samanthrax was unstarred

little_engine_that_could
03/30/09

@morninggloria: A friend of my roommate's and mine who lives in dc and comes up and lets himself into our place occasionally brought us a gift like this once. One day this random scary velvet backed painting of what literally looks like a mob lynching showed up in our stairwell - creeped both of us out so badly we never said anything about it, even to one another. Then one weekend hes up and the three of us walk past said creepy painting and he bursts out laughing - we were like wha? and he explained that he had been making his way over from the bus stop late one night and couldnt resist it so he brought it home. It was an amusing mystery - Im pretty sure its getting wrapped up and given to him for a wedding gift :)
Reply

morninggloria
03/30/09

@little_engine_that_could: Oh god, once someone left a headless goose lawn ornament outside of my apartment door. I was fucking petrified.
Reply

morninggloria was starred morninggloria was unstarred

Hamsterpants
03/30/09

@morninggloria: HAHAHA, that's hilarious for some reason. If you get a dickless garden gnome after this, look out. Stalkerlicious!!!
Reply

Hamsterpants was starred Hamsterpants was unstarred

Mkp-hearts-NYC
03/30/09

In reply to The Revolution Will Not Involve Day-Old Sushi
Every time I virtuously think of making my way on hand-me-downs, tossed-asides and castoffs...I walk by a Chipotle...and all my altruism evaporates like the aerosol in a free can of shaving cream.
Reply

Mkp-hearts-NYC was starred Mkp-hearts-NYC was unstarred

Hamsterpants
03/30/09

@Mkp-hearts-NYC: Dude, you have to be as one made of iron to resist the charms of Chipotle - in other words, YOU ARE HUMAN.
Reply

Hamsterpants was starred Hamsterpants was unstarred

Miss Smith Drank Your Vodka
03/30/09

In reply to The Revolution Will Not Involve Day-Old Sushi
And that's the point: the "lifestyle" they advocate seems to be a full-time job, one that demands a tremendous time investment.

EXACTLY!@

ALSO, anyone remember the short-lived show Undeclared?

Boy working in the kitchen would eat the scraps off of his fellow students' plates ... until he contracted something from such. EQWWWWWWWWWWWWWW
Reply

cwisto moweina has got yer goat
03/30/09

@Miss Smith Drank Your Vodka: Well, now, that's just unhygienic. Most freegans reclaim food that hasn't been partially consumed and is probably still in its original packaging.
Reply

CissyPants
03/30/09

In reply to The Revolution Will Not Involve Day-Old Sushi
I heard these 2 on the radio a couple of days ago. The only issue I had with it was that their scavenging is a full time job. A person that works all day does not have the time to scavenge everything they need. It also has a lot to do with where you live, too.
Reply

CissyPants was starred CissyPants was unstarred

cwisto moweina has got yer goat
03/30/09

@CissyPants: Yes, but people who devote a lot of time to it save so much that they don't have to work as much to support themselves. It is a job, but in earnings as well as in time and effort.
Reply

la.donna.pietra
03/30/09

@CissyPants: Berkeley seriously is a scavenger's dream. I scored SO MUCH cool stuff from free boxes and back alleys. Other places? Where it rains/freezes more and people aren't half so generous or rich? Not so much.
Reply

la.donna.pietra was starred la.donna.pietra was unstarred

YourScreenplaySucks
03/30/09

In reply to The Revolution Will Not Involve Day-Old Sushi
I wonder if aging, unemployed professional scavengers are allowed to deposit shaving cream samples & used blue jeans in their retirement accounts or pay off any emergency medical bills with discarded footstools.
Reply

morninggloria
03/30/09

@Your Screenplay Sucks: GM is accepting footstools and non expired dairy products as payment on their new bond issue, I hear.
Reply

morninggloria was starred morninggloria was unstarred

Earlier discussions Other discussions Show all discussions Show featured discussions only Start a new discussion

#freegans

Jezebel

SUBSCRIBE TO Jezebel

The Revolution Will Not Involve Day-Old Sushi

Oprah Wears Louboutins To Interview Anti-Consumerist "Freegans"

Login

Reset Password

Register

Submit Your Comment